Don Rickles: the Merchant of Venom by Michael Seth Starr

Author:Michael Seth Starr [Starr, Michael Seth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Citadel Press
Published: 2022-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

The year ahead promised to be a busy one for Don Rickles. He was like the showbiz equivalent of a shark, always moving, always working, afraid to slow down lest he cut the oxygen powering his career. All of his hard work, and even the failures, paid handsome dividends in terms of Don’s bank account. He was earning nearly $1 million a year now, a far cry from playing the Wayne Room in D.C. in the mid-1950s for twenty-five bucks a night.

Ed Sullivan was a frequent target of Don’s barbs and professed to be a big fan. He devoted a lot of ink to Don in his newspaper column, introduced him when he opened at the Copa. Sullivan, though, never asked Don to be a guest on his CBS showcase, The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps Sullivan and his producers thought that Don’s super-charged persona was too much for middle America—although the irreverent Jackie Mason was a frequent Sullivan Show guest throughout the 1960s, even after Ed mistakenly thought he had flipped him the bird during a 1964 appearance.

Sullivan finally rectified the situation by booking Don on The Ed Sullivan Show as a special guest when it aired “live and in color” (that was still a big deal) from the new Circus Circus hotel and casino in Las Vegas on January 12, 1969. Don appeared on Ed’s stage with Gina Lollobrigida and Jerry Vale; it marked the first time that Lollobrigida, the Italian bombshell actress, sang and danced on television.

In his memoir, Rickles’ Book, Don recalled how, when Sullivan started the show that night by introducing “the famous Brasini Monkeys,” he ran out on stage. “I think you’re making a big mistake with those monkeys, Ed. The lead monkey is William Morris’ hottest client and is demanding more money.” Sullivan, seemingly caught off-guard, changed the subject. “Do me a favor. Go home,” he said to Don.1

Don eventually did his usual insult act, which appeared to go over well with the Circus Circus audience. After the show aired, however, Sullivan’s producer and son-in-law, Bob Precht, publicly apologized to Mexican Americans for a crack Don made about them.2 Sullivan, for his part, said to Don when the show ended, “We were dynamite together, weren’t we, Don?”

Don returned to The Ed Sullivan Show in late June. It was, once again, airing “live and in color” from Circus Circus. Don to Sullivan: “I tell you as a friend—Sylvia’s leaving you.” “By the way, you oughta get the teeth scraped, Ed.” “Once in a while, Ed, move your body. They’ll throw dirt on ya.” Then to the audience: “That’s his wonderful wife Sylvia. She used to be a cocktail waitress, used to hang around in San Diego by the ships going, ‘Hi, Navy!’”3

There was another appearance on NBC’s The Kraft Music Hall. This time around, Don cohosted with Don Adams, and they poked fun at the laid-back California lifestyle with guests Kaye Ballard, Joseph Cotten, and the Beach Boys. Shortly thereafter, Don and Phyllis Diller

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